Losing Hope
by Flashfire
Summary: About an Abra morph named Hope, coping with a sudden and unlikely turn of fate. Read, and sympathise with her. She needs it. :) A fanfic of a fansubgenre. Based in the PMMush universe, or at least.. spinning off from it. Based on an idle conversation.
1. Such a lonely way to be…

Losing Hope  
an aptly named fanfic of a fansubgenre  
by Flashfire  
  
_Mini-Disclaimer:_  
Pokemorph Mush: www.pokemorph.com  
Pokemon is © 1995-2003 of Nintendo  
Plagiarism taints your karma. Please refrain from doing so. :)  
Your comments are valued, your criticisms are welcomed, but I have a  
large vat of water handy for any flames, so don't even think about it.  
_end disclaimer, now on to the meaty stuff_  
  
  
-  
Prologue:  
_Never does a day pass where I don't wonder.._  
  
-  
  
They say that the worst experience any being can have is being imprisoned against their will, for a long period of time. Obviously, 'they' have never quite spent long periods of time trapped in two places at the same time.   
She found it quite a sane experience, really. Well, this half of her conscious did. Never did she quite realise what the other half thought, really, but then it didn't matter all that much.   
Not much of a view here, either. No windows, no doors, nothing; and this led her to wonder how exactly she'd come to be in here. Hah. Psychics can teleport, they can easily make it into completely sealed places. But she couldn't get out, nor did she remember how to get in. And each half of her considered that only the other knew how to teleport, and so the disconcertment of believing half of yourself is running free in the world was prevalent.  
  
She'd learned to ignore that. After all, it made sense for It, whatever it was that was keeping her bound to these places, to force her into believing something which wasn't true. Really, she didn't believe it.  
  
Sigh.  
  
The entity that called herself Hope reminded herself of this fact, shuddering due to the irony of her own name; she'd lost hope ages ago. Time didn't mean a great deal in this place, so it'd be not her job to say how long ago this was. Hope stared at a wall that didn't exist, sitting in a nonexistant place with nonexistant eyes, glancing at nothingness, that didn't exist and did at the same time.. and sighed once more, retreating to the instability of her own thoughts.  
  
All the while, considering. How to be free once more. Never did a day pass where she didn't wonder. Never did a day pass that she would notice pass at all anyway, but that didn't stop her wondering, not a bit.  
  
Soon she'd forget what outside was like. Blissful ignorance.  
  
It was taking its sweet time, though...  
  
  
--  
  
  
Chapter 1  
_Such a lonely way to be.._  
  
The dismal little hall was not much to look at; a nice, foreboding, enveloping gloom, just took even its single into the depths of angst, taking a razor to pleasantries and a hacksaw to her mood that would normally be a fair one.  
To call the place dark did it no justice, but that said, some portions of it were lit. The odd candles tried to pierce the darkness, and only managed to look dim, short bits of light dwindled by a blackness that was like fog. Except around the large chair itself, where.. she sat, bathed in a soft purple light. Her own purple light, and a defiant rejection of the candles and their flickering flames.  
  
And one single utterance pierced the dark within itself.  
"Wow. This is.. so boring."  
An uncaring voice was this, said with no bother that nobody was there to hear it. This was the very epicentre of Rocket HQ, and was set to look like the inside of a castle throne room.. apart from the complete absence of anything other than dark stone.  
  
She herself was not exactly badly kept; recognisable as Abra-morph, not helped by an out of place pair of slightly oversized novelty Mew ears, that sat up there for no purpose, and weren't even real; stitched pretty well, but not anything more than a decoration at this point. The biggest eye catch was the cloak, a veritable amassment of dull and decrepit colour, that perhaps aided itself in looking grey more than aided itself not to look the same. Black was the colour, and the cloak sat over like monarchic robes, pretty much; black plates keeping up the back, shoulder wise. Grey is the colour when it comes to her being; not fur, just.. flesh, and mostly unseen. Two proper ears, slightly droopy, quite oversized themselves, adorned with earrings, sat under the faded pink of the Mew headband, quite resentful that their proper place had been taken by something less than real.  
  
Claws tapped against the arms of the place she was sat. And grey eyes stared at the gloom, watching as it stared back. Everything she saw was hers, and many things she did not see. She was everything, or at least.. that was the original plan. She was Hope. Not the Hope of legend; not any more. Eyes that once burned a nice, two-coloured blend, of mixed purple and crimson. Not now. That had gone and had been gone for too long, much too long; grey eyes replaced them, and were not a very good stand-in, either.  
  
It was not fond memories she had of the reason she stayed sat here. Fonder were the thoughts of what she had done before getting this. When she had just been Jane Nobody, and the world had spat on her quite enough for her to not give anything more than a passing glance at it. At least.. until it stared at her, and told her flat out.  
  
--  
  
"I'm what now.."  
A memory is all this was, but it was worth reliving; Hope, in her usual self.. speaking to what didn't really look much like a Pokemon at all.  
It was too real, too.. obvious. As far as she could tell, it didn't even have type, or anything, although it did exist, and it wasn't human, that much was fair. Or, at the very least, it was human as she was. Which didn't count at all. Though it looked like a Meowth, kind of.  
"You are destined to rule the world. Sounds strange, doesn't it. But I'm not here to lie to you." The creature even looked as feline as Mew, although most definitely was not one of those fabled creatures.  
"Well, then surely you understand how strange it is to accept this on face value.." was her response. "Then don't take my word for it. Put this on." The creature, whom Hope still didn't have a name for, offered a headband over to the Abra, who took it after some hesitation. It was quite a vibrant pink, and had rather large feline ears on it.  
"If nothing happens, and it won't be that case, then all you have to bother about is having Mew ears on for a few seconds. Not that anyone would really mind, since it's dark and there's nobody here."  
  
Indeed, the sun had departed quite a time ago. Only the street lamp overhead their quiet little spot somewhere on the Isle really was noticeable. Unusual for Hope to be out this late, perhaps, but it was as though she was meant to be. And maybe, in all this confusion.. she was.  
"You know, if this is a joke.. I'm going to introduce you to an entirely new experience of pain." she spoke, softly, before moving to put the ears on. This felt like a joke, but hey; even if you're being told wrong, is it worth not taking such a guess?  
  
They fitted rather well. Only she didn't have time much to notice this, because her mind instantly ran into overdrive. A futile cause, of course, because the Mew ears were much more psychic than even the Abra could hope to achieve normally. It lifted her a number of feet off the floor, anyway.. The creature was busy watching the houses around, as their chorus to the changing of hands of the Power was.. to switch on every light on the island. Strange, but that's what happened, as a sea of artificial light overtook the Island, spreading from this little streetlamp, which actually exploded, showering the area in glass, none of the pieces hitting the suspended Hope, who wasn't doing much of anything, until she opened her eyes - now whole areas of colour - and dropped the few feet back to the floor almost instantly. She landed a few inches off, with a motion of her hands.. nothing new that, but, of course, words were next.  
".. What a rush..." A hand to the head, which flicked one of the ears slightly. She could tell what the people along the houses were thinking.. a few of them were confused, a number of them, all psychics, were busy trying hard not to even consider scanning outside because they'd probably send themselves unconscious even trying. The children in the upstairs were waking up, and some who were not asleep were glad of the light, while yet others had not woken, and did not know Hope's thoughts that moment.  
  
"And now I'm going to leave you, Hope.. Do what comes naturally, and I'm sure I'll see you some time later." said the feline, before taking its leave, its strange mode of black clothing seeming somewhat familiar to Hope at this point, who turned to him, and started after him, just to ask.  
*Wait.. Who are you? And what are you?* The Abra just now noticed that the ears had took her speech, but then again they'd replaced it with a much better version of something ever so much purer. Projection telepathy.. that general ability of most psychics. Though.. this had an air of completeness to it, rather than the silence that comes with talking to one mind at once.  
"Just think of me as someone you should know, I guess. I'm a cat, something you'll never hear of, and never see when it's not me. This existence is not mine, it belongs to an associate of yours.. call him Tatikyas. I'm just borrowing him for a bit. I can't tell you why I did that, but it probably doesn't matter anyway. You have things to do." And with these words, he trotted away.  
  
The name Tatikyas was not a welcome thing for Hope to hear. It reminded her of the Team.. and that's when it hit. What would the Team think of this? They could do a whole lot more with an impossibly high grade psychic.. and, heck, she WAS the next Myuutsu, even! So maybe she should act it.  
That apathetic nature she had so inherited didn't really care either way, just thinking it might be fun. But the corruption had already begun.  
  
--  
  
Hope relished in the thoughts of how she'd dispatched Rocket after Rocket in her ascent from a grunt to Head Honcho herself. Nice days, were those. She was planning on making her move on the mainland, too, with her at the head.. after all, she could do all this. She was the great Hope now, after all; feared by all, and despised by just as many. Though not openly. She let them have their own thoughts, because autonomy is bad. And did she really care for what others could do? No. She didn't have to. It was wonderful.  
  
Until the cat she'd learn to call Tatikyas came back, anyway..  
  
--  
  
Her room back then was this one, except it was alight with all the candles she had in there. And with the presence of her herself, of course. Over the last few months, she'd become so refined that she even trailed a veil of grey psysparks behind her, a little sign of her skill, and her power. Living it up in her new self-confidence, as a nice side effect of feeling completely thrilled every second. Childlike, if you will. Those Mew ears had their way about a being.  
  
"You should probably leave the mainland alone, you know." came the voice from somewhere in the hall. It was empty then, too, and she'd glanced around.  
"Who would come in here and go against what I think..?" she asked the voice. And the blackly clothed cat stepped out from behind one of the pillars in the hall. "Me. You do remember me, don't you? Your workers have had it way too easy because of who I've taken.. I need to let him back into himself now, it's really annoying for that 'chu not to be. You've got the whole island in an iron grip, you know."  
"You said do what I wished. I felt like driving the world towards a nice new state of unity, that's all." said Hope.  
"They're not meant to be afraid of you, by the way." said the cat. "Nobody was afraid of Mew, because she was benevolent! But I don't blame you, I blame the human side. The Abra recognises that people's thoughts are sacred, and while you can't do anything about it, you don't do anything to people that think badly of you. That much is commendable, and it's why I'm not going to go find someone else."  
"What are you talking about now.." said Hope, in a way of false misunderstanding. Somewhere in her head, that statement was understood perfectly to be right, but the Abra had refused to believe the next thought she had. That he had.  
"I'm going to take the Power back for now. You could be ready fairly soon, but I think you need to be humbled a little more than you have been first. There's potential there. I might see you in ten or so years, once more. Don't forget me now."  
"What makes you think you can do that..?" said Hope, questioningly, narrowing her eyes. And she noticed his thoughts became fearful. Aha. Maybe he was as afraid of her as anyone else. After all.. Tatikyas was nothing special aside from his ability to fight. Was he?  
"I gave it you. I can take it back. I don't even have to touch you, I can just use these two stones here." He held them up, for Hope to see. They were just a couple of stones, null in colour, just.. clear crystal.  
"Pfft." Hope said.  
He let the stones go, and they sat in the air for a while. Hope knew something was wrong when they started glowing.. and suddenly they shone too brightly for her to see. She shrieked, while a sense of loss and the whole whiteness thing overtook her vision, sent her sprawling, sent her down into the darkness....  
  
.. of the chair, which was still lit, though not as much. Hope spat; this was a bad thing. But she was not out yet; that thing had a lot of power to take off her.. and she turned to the cat, who just stood there and watched.  
"Here.. This one's on the house." she said, before holding a clawed hand out. A blue light exploded across the cat, and he shouted. Hope felt his mind fall into severe disarray, before she had to strain to detect such, and in her weakened state, did not maintain looking.  
  
The cat swore; not even a light swear, either. Stumbling, he got the stones from the air; their colour was now visible, purple and red. Hope's eye colours. Convenient, because Hope's vision had gone, too. All she had was psi detection of the area.. and it told her nothing, save for that the cat was not unaffected by that psychic. Though, after he took the stones, he ran, fleeing, to become a blur. The Abra had no idea what would happen to him as a result of her action; her attacks were so varied these last months. She worried more on what would happen to her now she was powerless to help herself, and not even able to see or speak without the help of her already diminished ability.  
  
Could she bluff herself to have not changed until she could recoup and get herself back? A part of herself had become attached to the Power, which had resided in the Mew ears she still wore, now faded. That part wasn't there, and she had no idea where it could be. She had to get it back. This would take some time.  
  
--  
  
Too long. The time was now two years later. She had bluffed for two years, retreating to seclusion within her own ranks for fear of being found out. No nearer to finding the cat, just hoping she'd be what he termed 'ready' before such a time happened.  
  
So lonely it was, just waiting for things to happen. She didn't have it light because everything was just as blurred and dark if lit, than if not lit.  
  
  
--  
  
Tatikyas was still not himself these two years later, and though he wasn't watching Hope, he was doing something quite close. Following the locations of the two stones, anyway. Which was very easy, since he wasn't even morphed now. The human part of the cat had been lost in the mess that Hope caused while he got back what he gave her. Which just left him as this little kitten.. a stuffed toy of a kitten, even, for reasons he didn't need to remind himself of. A strange sight, even on an island of morphs, but a very easy to miss sight, since he could just masquerade as a child's toy and get absolutely anywhere. Pretty good.  
  
He'd have to tell someone, though. His presence was missed by the odd few.. one of whom he had to follow. Because the purple stone, which had been an everstone after he had done with it, had been passed through various means to this morph. The Pichu named Aichi, in fact. And the Tatikyas kitten watched as the mentioned young zapmouse made his way up the cracked and tattered path of his existence's house. Not that he could possibly find anyone in that house, of course. But then again.. Aichi didn't know this at the time. He'd come on his bike.. and left it just outside the gate.  
  
It was probably so lonely for the kitten, too; maybe he should get a name for himself, now, instead of using that of his existence. He'd be here quite a bit longer than he wanted to be.. Tati might not be too pleased to not be anything close to himself on his return.  
  
But enough of that thought. To the matter at hand. He shook without trying, as Aichi knocked on the door, and waited.  



	2. I don't believe you…

Chapter 2  
_I don't believe you.._  
  
Aichi tapped on the door rather stoutly, for such a frame. The Pichu was done up in one of his normal tracksuity clothing pieces, and he had with him a curious box that, knowing him, probably contained food. The everstone around his neck shook as he tried the door one more time.  
"Tati, are you in there?" was the quiet wondering. Not that he wanted to rouse the raichu if he was; but at least he could say that he tried. He stared at the door, which seemed to him like iron bars, and windows of cold mesh.. Was this, indeed, a zoo? And if it was.. what did he care?  
"I'll come back later.." Aichi said, wandering away, slightly dejected. He could make other deliveries today, whether he had the 'chu watching his back or not.  
  
"He's not in." the cat said, suddenly. If the vengeful Hope should start her moving at any time - and it seemed quite likely to him, since this period of waiting was making him uneasy - he'd want to be on hand. Which meant he'd have to be taken along wilfully.. which meant telling this one, who might require his presence more than the other stone's holder, a few things.  
  
The young rodent squeaked and spun around, eyeing into the bushes of weeds that had grown up in the house owner's absence. His own ears didn't miss anything, and they certainly hadn't missed the voice. "Someone there?"  
"Yeah, there's someone here. Under the big mass of plantstuff. I'd come out myself, but you can't see why that isn't a possibility just yet."  
  
Aichi shuddered. This felt strange.. maybe it was something in a hole? Maybe it was Tati himself.. after all, he could place the voice. So, carefully, he wandered over to the weeds, and started clearing them away with brushes of those mittenhands, uprooting a few, but mostly shifting them to one side.  
  
--  
  
He saw the plush almost immediately. A little dog-eared, but intact; mostly white and black, with some tan and a tiny ringlet of gold about the tail. "Someone's playing games with me.."  
"Nope. The words being said are, indeed, coming from the plush you're looking at - and while I don't expect you to treat this seriously, I'd like it if you didn't run away either."  
The coldness of the tone and the strangeness of the situation left Aichi frozen anyway, just nodding. "Y..y.."  
"Just pick me up a second, I can't see you from over here."  
  
Stuck in the loop of compliance.. Aichi bent over, and took the stuffed toy in his hands, tilting its head to face him. Looking into the eyes.. and realising, just possibly..  
"Someone's not playing games with me, are they.." Aichi said, slightly plainly, and of high pitch. "Um.. Hi, I guess... ?"  
Here we go. He needed a name. "Taki." said the cat, without moving. "I'm here to tell you some things that you might not want to hear, but it's better if you do."  
  
"Is this about Hope?" Aichi said. Taki stared - in a metaphysical sense. Maybe there was something about these stones he'd not understood yet.  
"Well.. yeah. How'd you know that?"  
Aichi shook the plush quite violently. "Do you know where she is?!"  
Taki couldn't actually feel this, but the throwing about of his vision was pretty obvious, and it made him rather dizzy quite quickly.  
"Woah there! Remember I'm completely at your mercy here. I don't know where she is yet, no. I think she'll come to find you soon enough, though. Just a feeling I have."  
Aichi stopped the shaking, and blished a little, mumbling. "Sorry.." He sat the kitty up in his hands - treating it ever the more gently - and then spoke just randomly. "So she'll come to look for me.. Is this a bad thing?"  
Taki could only reply with what was correct. "It could be. She wants your Everstone, though she doesn't know it yet."  
  
Aichi cradled the everstone even more. "What's she want it for? It took me ages to get another one of these, after the first.."  
"I'll tell you this, and you must take me on face value here. I gave Hope unimaginable power, and it turned sour on her. I took it back, and you've got half of it locked away in your everstone."  
  
Silence overtook the way for a while. A wind blew among the bushes. Aichi's world started to spin.. but, suddenly, in a world of talking plushies, the disappearance of people he knows, and his recent batch of dreams.. he accepted that this is how things were. And it took him by surprise that he did this, as well.  
"I.. Um.. Y.. What can I d-do?" Aichi said, blankly, as most entities would should they get presented with the knowledge they've got the metaphysical fate of the world in a little bit of rock about their neck.  
"Keep me along with you. I caused it all to happen, I planted the stone in your house to replace the one you lost a week before, knowing you'd take it. I couldn't think of anything to do with the second stone before what she did to me finally took hold, and I don't know who has it now. I think they'll find you as well, though."  
  
Aichi's eyes widened for a minute.. and then were replaced with the soft glint of tears. "You got me involved in something like THIS?" It was the first time that Taki's memory, Tatikyas's experiences, ever knew Aichi putting his voice up. He then considered that maybe he'd said too much.  
"I don't think you'd rather Hope take this world in an iron grip, would you?" Taki said, before he was shaken about again by a slightly distraught Aichi.  
"Hope's a good person! I don't know what you're going on about..."  
"I left Hope as a shell! She runs the Team now! You want to know where she is? She's in the central chamber of your damned HQ! Where I put her!" Taki screamed at the Pichu, slightly at a loss himself. But then, he accepted things like this without consideration. What was Tatikyas in there immediately knew what was going to happen next.  
  
"That means it comes back to you again.. I think you're the bad one here, and I'm going to put you back inder the bushes and go away now." Aichi said, keeping his tone solid, as much as a wavery and extremely agitated Pichu can manage, anyway. Taki didn't get a word in before Aichi threw the plush back into the weeds, and took off at a canter back to his bike, where he could get away from the nonsense; back to a place where things made sense.  
  
Taki didn't need to respond. He'd screwed this up majorly, and as his vision settled into a nice vertical view of a bunch of green plants, he sighed. "Hope 1.. Taki 0. Or maybe minus -1, I'll never get out of these weeds like this.."  
  
  
---  
  
Aichi pushed the old bike to its limit - and his own limit, racing out of GREF and up one of the main criss-cross streets. Until, suddenly, he decided to remember a few things.  
"He told me where Hope was.." Aichi said, continuing his pretty quick way along. "I've got to see if I'm right now, that's going to bug me all day.."  
And so, Hope got another point, and Taki went spiralling into oblivion.. as the Pichu skid stopped, and turned to make for home again. Where he could don his necessary gear, disguise himself as Kokoro again, and go for a little base exploration.  
  
Even if the kitty was evil, it had told him what he needed to know. He actually had the forethought to smile slightly, as he kept along his route.  
  



	3. Fate, or coincidence, or both…?

Chapter 3  
_A nice touch of fate, or coincidence, or both.._  
  
Teyber was not a person who had any real care for anything.  
  
Not herself, and not the Team. She just sided with them because she got to order people around and kill things. At least, that's what -she- said.  
  
It was believable. She was not some average lackey scientist wussyvee, that much was obvious. The flareon - for that is what she was - was this 6'7 whitely clad monster. And white really was the colour, for her fur was more cream, like a Ninetales. But, unlike all the subordinates and peers she'd wander past in the base where TR did all their evil stuff, she didn't wear black, she wore white. Her attitude spoke for itself, though.  
Teyber had yellow wiry hair that stretched down to mid-back and a crown of thorns she'd added just for show. Looked fine against her white clothing, a full-length narrow dress that didn't show all that much. Oh, and she wore a spiked collar and a skull belt which had pins dotted through all the unused holes. Oh yeah, just a ray of sunshine, this one.  
  
The flareon was pretty sweet to look at, but anybody that was in this place knew she wasn't here to be pretty, she was here to be sociopathic. This is exactly what she did.  
  
"Shift yourself!" she commanded to a smaller morph - which to her meant almost everyone - although in this case it was a young adult Rattata. And Rattata shift to loud noises; he almost left an impression of himself in the wall with the speed. "Good boy."  
  
The only other thing.. and perhaps Teyber's only sentimental possession.. was a red jewel on a necklace, which she kept around her neck. This was -her- fire stone. It was the reason she was standing so prudently, right here, right now. And downright nasty, but.. such things do not go noticed after the event happens.  
  
Not surprisingly, the firevee moved into the Elite controlled section of the base. This was the place where people moved out of respect.. and the few seasoned Firsts they had down here expected even her to move. And she did. Sociopathic, pretty tough.. but a Second that wasn't stupid. Those morphs were very fitting to be around, she thought. They don't look like much.. but sooner they'd take your head off than you could possibly blink. And Teyber admired this. Which is why she shared a room with one. The only roomshare on the base that involved two different generations. All the other shared rooms that had first gens in.. well, they were now empty. We'll leave it to your imagination.  
  
"Teyber." said the older female as the firevee bent her head and stepped through the door. This was just a sign of acknowledgement; the first, who was a fairly tall grey Midoqueen morph, was busy, reading, and didn't wish to look up.  
"Yo Floss.." she called out, wandering over to her bed, a shambled bunk arrangement. Floss got top; nobody in the world questioned this. "I miss anything while out today..?"  
"Nope." called Floss. "We're still in reclusion, our leader is still a vegetable, the missing disk that those scientist people keep worrying about keeps changing hands and yet nobody out there knows where it is.."  
"Same old." Teyber said. "Data means too much to these people."  
"Remember that we were reborn from the scientists and their data. We could kill them all if we so desired, but that wouldn't be all that fair." Floss looked up; one of her eyes was missing, but Teyber had gotten used to the sight of the socket. Generally it would be hidden by the dark green hair that she wore down about her face, but.. she didn't mind. It looked like a trophy, in a sense. *I fought the great War and all I got was this lousy eye socket*..  
"I was looking through records the other day, lass. Your old ones, right back from when you were but a 'vee. And I have to admit that what I see now.. and you know I can still see; I see something and I don't think it could possibly have been the wasted Eevee I read about. You were confused and toed the line because you had to, that much is clear, but.. look at you now! You thrive on making the soldiers feel their rank."  
  
Teyber shrugged. So Floss had records access. She felt privileged she was enough of a landmark for a First to go finding her info out. "So I evolved. Evolution makes things happen."  
"Not this big, lass. I've seen people turn into total opposites, but I did never see a sec-gen getting themselves the attitude of a First, and the mood to go with it. That's not the sort of thing evolution teaches you. So tell me a story, Teyber. Of being Eevee, and being on the island, and being you."  
"You flatter me, Floss. I'm not a first and I don't pretend to be."  
"You don't have to pretend! You're the only combat-ready Elite Second in this whole damned base and you're going to pretend you don't know why. C'mon, tell me a story. I read this book already."  
  
Floss was one of those first generation morphs that took everything in their stride. She avoided the beatings because she was loyal, and she avoided the dying because she was damn good. Now she was trying to beg an autobiography off a second gen, and.. she didn't know why. But the files had said she was predicted to flee within months, and Floss didn't ever see nobody on the marked for flee list change their mind just cause of a stone...  
"Fine, Floss. I'll tell you. But I don't want you mocking how I was when I was a 'vee." Teyber said, defiantly, lying on her own, bottom, bunk.. and speaking into the mattress.  
"Once upon a time, I was a Nidoran female. I was probably cute, cuddly, green as heck, and wouldn't have stood up to a Caterpie. What happened past doesn't plague me; it just serves as a footnote. And I'm curious." Floss said. Teyber had her similar experiences, she gathered.. and so, she began the story.  
  
--  
  
"I'm not an old morph. In fact, I'm downright young. So young I can remember being an Eevee, damn it. And I lived somewhere on the mainland, too. Like everybody else. You didn't pay attention to location back then.. you were just happy..."  
  
-  
  
Smarmy as the female Eevee was, she was busy in long grass just minding her business along one of the Routes. As generally happens. Somewhere else along the route, a large brown road.. were stood a couple of plain-clothes Rocket humans. Not of the 'bozo' type, they were both male, and they were just talking. She wasn't interested in what.. just she was here, an off-orange fur colour, and some really neat pink eyes. The sort of thing that you notice through long grass.  
"Uhh.. You see something in there?" went the first one.  
".. Yeah, I do. Think we should go take a look?"  
The first one pulled out a gun and a Pokeball. "Perhaps."  
  
-  
  
"...Well, the obvious happened. I had my leg shot out, and I was caught. And I was waken here, and morphed. Painful operation, not as bad as you had it.. but still, not very fun. I was awake the whole time. There is nothing on this earth like watching yourself become something totally different..."  
Floss looked over the end. "They keep seconds awake? There's a new one on me.."  
Teyber shrugged. "Well, either they kept me awake, or I kept me awake. Not sure which. Either way.. when I came out of that I was just a scared nine year old..."  
  
-  
  
"Five three.. low weight.. Low aggression.. high spaz factor.. Wow, you're really not suited to this, are you?" noted the scientist, as the young Teyber tested out her new two-legged gait. Her tail was just a mass, which sat behind the orange-furred like a ballast. Teyber vee'd some form of reply, and then instantly got shocked. The scientist, a closely eyed Murkrow, was doing the 'quick and humane' way of teaching speech. There was nothing humane about it, but what was quick is that the minimal shock had her screaming, before she passed out. To which the bird.. threw his clipboard aside, and just walked out. You can't -do- anything here.  
"If she even survives out there, she'll run at the first opportunity. But that's not my concern.. I don't make the rules.." he told the first morph he walked past. "Wait until she's awake, and then.. do something with her. I don't care."  
  
-  
  
"That's what the records have." Floss said. "So what the heck is such a morph doing even sitting here?"  
"I'm getting to it." Teyber said. "It was a couple of years ago. I was outside, on my own.. and I was just walking. It was daylight, but it was quite quiet..."  
  
  
--  
  
The sun lit up her path. Teyber would not forget how to be happy, although the frail veemorph was not liking her daily events, because she had to report to base daily, and nobody really liked her. She had bruises, head to toe, and that was because she got pushed, shoved, beaten, and generally abused. Though, thankfully, not to the most severe that it could be. Though she didn't surmise that as long in coming.  
  
She had heard footsteps, which only drew her because they had.. stopped, all at once. This was the stone area of the city, a place for a few of the more affluent morph types, of which she was none. She was just.. normal. And a pretty weak normal, at that.  
  
The area had a cool breeze track through the centre of it, and Teyber's perpetual blinking had tears carried away in it, though they were for no real purpose. She just stared about.. attempting to find something, and then.. she almost walked into it.  
  
On the floor, just in the middle of the pavement.. were a stuffed toy, and a stone. And both of them looked pretty benign as she bent down, and looked at them. The plush was some animal she had never seen before, and the stone was red.  
.. Red? Red was, of course..  
  
She moved away from the stone, which had latched onto the idea of it being fire and she being an eevee, and just glowed, invitingly. She didn't, however, shy from the plush.. she liked plush toys, they were fuzzy. And this one was, indeed, fuzzy, and even if she didn't know what it was, it still felt neat.  
  
The world spun. Teyber, still clasping the plushie, lost her balance, and fell over - right onto the stone. What had that been? Mild vertigo? Either way, the 'vee went side first into it, her hands taken and unable to stop herself from actually touching the red object.  
  
She was burning! It hurt, a fiery pain that reached deep within her being, and flooded her very soul with searing warmth. And her world was this pain, for a while. On reflex, she reached behind herself, and gripped the stone, and brought it arond to her face..  
  
--  
_"And I swear, something jumped out at me."_  
It did. Something traversed the gap between her stone and her head, and then the whole of her body was pain, and she collapsed into a sobbing heap, stone clasped incredibly hard. So much heat, so painful..  
_"It was tearing me up, it was. Just a building, right here, and I'm sure other things were going on. I could almost feel it.. my nerves had a lot to deal with, the fact of my growth in height and the changes to my face weren't noticed almost made it not quite as worthwhile.."  
Floss shrugged. "You're entranced by your own change? I've seen that happen.. the guy was distraught when he reached the end of the evolution chain. Threw himself off a bridge."  
Teyber coughed. "Anyway.."_  
Eventually the heat reached a predefined critical point.. and she threw her head back and screeched - but, it was more than that, it was an outpouring of fire, pure fire, into the air. It felt good to do, all of a sudden.. the heat refined her own passages so that they would be able to do such a move always, and forever. She also had a headache, and.. she was still clutching the plushie. But.. something in that head of hers made itself pretty clear, as she threw it into a pile of bushes somewhere, and.. hissed a little.  
  
The height difference took her by surprise, and caused her to become quite light headed.. a hand to her temple, and the other in front of her. Which was still clasping the stone.. the object that had caused all of this. It had also caused her clothes to become ill-fitting quite quickly.. so she was just there, in her true and revealing form, taller than life.. reborn, in a sense.  
  
_"I dunno.. it's like you've woken up and realised precisely how you're meant to be and precisely what you're meant to do. From there, I was always meant to get to the point I was at. And at that point.. I felt the need to kill something, for the sole reason that I could. I'm not sure what surprised me more, the fact I thought about it.. the fact I did it.. or the fact I enjoyed it." Teyber said, a sly grin creeping over her firetype face.._  
  
  
---  
  
Floss got off the bed. "Well, I think yours goes down as the most profound change I'm ever likely to see. I don't get the 'something jumped at you' part.. that's not anything that comes with evolution, that I've seen."  
"Well, it's what I saw." Teyber said. Black piercing eyes, hammering her point down. Twirling her tail lightly, she stood up. "Maybe it's something else, or I was just seeing things, but.. it's what it was."  
  
The Nidoqueen shuffled things about. "The Boss had a profound experience, though. Just not from evolution. I read her files, too. Beforehand, she was just a grunt freeborn.. and now she runs this place."  
"She used to run this place, but now she just sits in that oversized hall of hers." Teyber said, blandly. "I should tell her as such, too." And she made for the door, feeling supremely confident now.  
"Teyber, no." Floss said. "There's a reason she's the Boss, and I'd hate for you to find such a reason out."  
"I have the word of a number of psychic Firsts that the sizeable presence of power she used to possess all but disappeared quite a long time ago. I think it's time someone called her bluff; and besides, I just want to hear what she's got to say." said Teyber, who left the room defiantly. That retelling of her history had given her an appetite for some hotheaded remarks.  
  
Or maybe she just wanted to check this 'Hope' character out a little. She felt like she should know this morph.  
  
Floss attempted to locate another book. And shrugged. "She was a good kid, I guess." was the admittance. "Hope she doesn't come out of that room in a box."  
  



End file.
